Single Op FM 

Claimed Score 1,395

I Operated from a cell site off of Freezeland Rd North of Linden Va.  I didnt go to Reddish Knob where I normally work from due to predicted sub zero temps, high winds, snow and ice.  I set up in a freezing rain with 20mph winds but the temps were moderate, around 25 deg.  

Freezeland Road lived up to its name.

The contest started great with a 301 mile Q on 223.5 FM with K1TEO in Connecticut.  This was to be the highlight of the contest.

As soon as the contest started I had pile ups on 146.520.  What a great turn out.  Despite my low altitude and expected lack of multi's it looked like the Q count was going to make up for it. 

Nice and warm in the Jeep.  Outside unknown to me the ice continued to build at a rapid rate.....

About 2hrs in I began having problems with 2m & 6m VSWR.  I dropped the mast and found ice had bridged the 2m and 6m Gamma matches to the driven elements on the Cushcrafts, the M2's while icey were much cleaner with acceptable VSWR.. I cleaned off as much ice as possible and put the mast back up. After another hour 2m and 6m VSWR climbed again and I had to dial back the power to 10W to save finals.  The ice storm was getting worse. I dropped the mast again.  The Gamma matches were bridged with ice again.  The ice was thicker in half the time, anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick on the Jeep (thicker) and antenna's (thinner).  Check out the attached pictures.  I went QRT at around 6pm.

Assessment: I made a strategic error in antenna selection.

I normally work from a more remote site at twice the altitude.  The beams are perfect there. The high gain gets me lots of multipliers and the broad elevation beam width reaches down into the nearby populated valleys.  I quit bringing my "high gain" CX-333 multiband omni long ago because the gain was low compared to the yagi (no distant grids) and the elevation pattern was too norrow to reach down into the valleys for nearby stations

For this contest I was on a grid corner at half the altitude close to major population centers.  The pile ups on 2 meters with the beam were great.  People heard me around the compass on the main lobe, side lobes and back lobe with my relatively sloppy 2m Cushcraft beam.  When I QSY'd to higher bands on my tight clean M2 beams many of the stations were gone and very few waited around for me to work around the compass to find them again.

I should have brought the CX-333 omni.  No need to beam steer, just QSY and rack up the points.  The CX-333 would have been better with all the ice too.  No bridging-shorting of electrical elements, The ice would have been easier to clean off fiberglass tube which would have been mounted on the roll cage, no climbing around on an ice covered roof or 30 minutes wasted every hour raising and lowering a mast.

I hated to quit so soon but I was going to blow up amps or radio finals if I kept going.  I should have analyzed the terrain/propogation and brought the CX-333.  It was the right tool for the job and I left it at home.

It was "fun"  but I feel bad that I dissapointed so many people who got on the air only to discover I was gone.  I wanted to go back Sunday morning but a ham buddy that live up there said it was 40mph+ winds and raining tree limbs and ice bombs with temps in the teens.

January defeats me again. 

I tenth of my September score, a humbling experience that I earned.

I cant wait for next year.

73

John

KM4KMU